I personally would prefer guard BASES instead of whole systems
Experience has taught me, that guard NPCs might be hard to kill, but they aren't the best killers either. Rather than that - seems like retreat bases work best. One huge asteroid base, packing station infernos and heavy cannon - anything bigger than a GB is being turned into shreds within seconds.
Now - I don't mind factions owning, buying and modelling their places (possible bias - cuz I'm a bit responsible for tau-44), but perhaps instead of the whole systems being described as guard - all were vanila-ized, badass NPCs removed and replaced with maximum lv regulars and the only guards left afloat would be guard bases. fortresses, shipyards and scientific facilities.
Well, our Guard system was Modded specifically to fit the Roleplay of the Late Great Nightfall, but it has become a rallying point and a symbol of power for our forces. Not to mention worth a big chunk of change and completely out of the way... it's of no strategic value; all it's worth is its RP. Please don't take it away.
Quote:Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen
Nor would I want to. Even though it pi$$es me off at times to see how natly armed Corsica is, it's one of those unique things in disco I'd like to see more.
i like the idea of guard systems - but i wish they served a greater purpose, like selling the capitals - or selling the higher level faction weapons etc.... some goodie.
anyway - derailing this a little bit ( sorry about that )...:
corsairs want to get biodomes? - that would end the truce between zoners and corsairs - and would most probably shape the face of the omicrons greatly - gotto think about it. if we kept the current political state up - it would be illogical, cause the only reasons corsairs accept the zoners is that they are still considering them useful. and that reason fades instantly once they become autonomous.
with that in mind - guard systems can serve a purpose...
Well i've got to say it. I'm agreeing with Unselie here, at least in principle. Guard systems should really serve more RP sense, than just as a mere fortress system to go cower in. I will be doing so in an RP sense with Cassini when we are allowed to purchase it to mod.
Guard systems.. hm. I think they are ok, but sometimes the placement is illogical. I think it was Poole? I wanted to explore it, the jumphole seemed, well.. out of the way, (in an asteroid/debris field, near a tradelane though), no NPCs in sight.. but then!
I ventured inside... and blamo, literally 12-16+ NPC Bretonian police guards and multiple weapons platforms slam me... which was a bit.. um, discouraging. I would like to see the insane numbers of NPCs patrol more closely to the bases, sure - the bases can have swarms and swarms and swarms and swarms of fighters flying around, but just in space it should be running into 4 and then another 4 or so (how nomad patrols are), but maybe I was just unlucky with the spawns (I haven't tried going back).
If the system is a heavily defended guard system, the entrance to it also should be heavily defended, or as a suggestion - near a battleship, main base or settled major planet and surrounded by a couple of (guard?) weapons platforms. That way, that miscellaneous explorer knows the score of what he's about to get him/herself into - it's also weird to find a very populated, well defended system, when the entrance looks very out of the way.
As for PC factions modelling their guard systems.. it would have to be supervised or have be guidelines* - nothing over the top.
*actually I just thought of an idea, a guard system costs a specific amount of credits, which is set. That's your budget - you can spend your budget and thats it. for example, you pay 750,000,000 for a system. Weapons platforms then "cost" you 50,000,000, a base 100,000,000, planet with mooring fixture 250,000,000, minefield 80,000,000 per navmap square etc. (numbers arbitary). You have a set limit of what you can buy - you can't put in more credits to buy more stuff later - so it stops creating a completely insanely defended base, which is just crap for RP anyway.
Just a random idea while I was thinking about it. Haven't thought critically about it though.
i like guard systems but one thing is not good of them.
hostility/neutral is to easy. For example when you start with new char, you go to gamma,1bribe, 3 missions and you are neutral to corsair guard and yo ucan fly to guard system. i think it will be better to make the reputation with guard much harder. i think something about start as total hostile to guard, and when you make enough missions or bribe the current faction to be tagged and alowed to buy id,then you are neutral, but only 1/4 quarter from hostility. and all the best guns or items sell only when you are friendly to them.
' Wrote:Now, in light of the player modded guard systems, such as the NovaPG home system, and the upcoming Corsair homes, which add things that will not change the npc behavior (but should) such as the massive shipyard in the novapg home (bd were, untill that point, fighter jocks, now they are apparently building battleships and cruisers) or the biodomes that the corsairs want to put up (which makes corsairs effectively a house, or at least not as active in their piracy, and more active in the war against the Outcasts (which they probably wont do).
Oh, this is not fair, Unselie! Unlike the striking new capital ship building ability of Blood Dragons, the Corsair are planning to build biodomes for ages. This is for example a vanilla news displayed on Crete:
I stared at that one so many times. Why shouldn't Corsairs finally get the bloody biodomes when they plan to build them for years? Artifact trade is going well, so does piracy so there are plenty of resources to achieve that. Yes there will be consequences as Blunt says, but that's called evolution...
' Wrote:Oh, this is not fair, Unselie! Unlike the striking new capital ship building ability of Blood Dragons, the Corsair are planning to build biodomes for ages. This is for example a vanilla news displayed on Crete:
I stared at that one so many times. Why shouldn't Corsairs finally get the bloody biodomes when they plan to build them for years? Artifact trade is going well, so does piracy so there are plenty of resources to achieve that. Yes there will be consequences as Blunt says, but that's called evolution...
Now I have to run so Bulldog can't catch me...:P
Agreed. It would be nice to see the evolution in how the NPCs act. I'd like to see Blood Dragon caps rising in open rebellion against the KNF for instance. (No, not biased due to BAF leanings, honest!:P)
Majkp, I fully support the Corsairs getting their biodomes. What I'm against, is the corsairs getting their biodomes, and then their politics not changing, which is what will happen.
Corsairs getting biodomes would lead to them becoming more active in the war against the outcasts, because they would need to steal less food. It could lead to a collapse of the zoner nation, or even the Corsairs becoming a recognized house. But, I suspect and predict, that none of these things will happen. The Corsair nation, as a whole, (including the npcs) will remain the same, which does not make sense in the context of the new capabilities of the guard systems.
Player modded Guard systems have, and will continue to have, no affect on the overall activities and motions of the server...that is what I was trying to say when I offended about half the forums, and it is what I am still saying.
It is a shame.